Sher has a run time of a little less than two hours, and that’s the best part of it. Anything longer would have made it excruciating. Director Mallikarjun narrates a done-to-death story of a hero avenging a personal loss, albeit in a round about way.
Since there is nothing new in the story or his method of storytelling, he uses the next best tactic — bank on the hero who hails from an illustrious family. There are enough dialogues paying ode to NTR, a large cut-out of NTR comes into play in a song and even his mask is used when the hero bashes up one of the members of the villain’s gang.
If that isn’t enough, the director also borrows bits of songs and scenes from hits of Rajinikanth, Mahesh Babu and throws in a reference to Pawan Kalyan. Picture this: A few minutes into the film and you get an idea of the madcap ways of the villain, played by Vikramjeet Virk. Since his only aim is to get married, he does a rehearsal for it. A song from Murari plays in the background of this rehearsal, and Fish Venkat is dressed like a bride! Sher has quite a few such absurd sequences.
Gautham (Kalyan Ram) is a straightforward guy who beats wrongdoers to a pulp. It’s only a matter of time before he locks horns with Vikramjeet who in turn is controlled by a don referred to as Dada (Mukesh Rishi). The bone of contention, at first, is Sonal Chauhan who does nothing much apart from taking selfies and stating that selfie is her hobby and photography, her passion. The scene where she declares to her family that she’s going to win an award in a photography contest and has a cakewalk win is unintentionally hilarious.
The film is packed with punch dialogues, song and dance numbers that appear with no rhyme and reason, lacklustre performances (even seasoned actors like Rao Ramesh and Rohini are thoroughly wasted) and music that one would barely remember while walking out of the hall. Even the humour doesn’t merit a discussion.
If taking down a so-called dreaded don was as easy as shown in the film, it’s laughable that no cop worth his salt ever tried doing it. In fact, there’s a cop waiting to take credit for all the hero is doing.
Sher is a test of endurance.
Sher
Cast : Kalyan Ram, Sonal Chauhan, Brahmanandam, Vikramjeet
Direction : Mallikarjun
Music : S.S. Thaman
Bottom line : Don’t go by the title.
